Latvian operation of the NKVD

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The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) called the Latvian Operation ( Russian Латышская операция НКВД ) the mass arrest and execution of people of Latvian descent during the Great Terror of 1937/1938 in the Soviet Union. The NKVD order No. 49990 formed the basis for this.

Latvians in the Soviet Union until 1936

More than 372 Latvian peasant colonies emerged from the 19th century after serfdom was abolished in Vitebsk Governorate , near St. Petersburg , Novgorod and in Siberia . When the Courland front line approached during the First World War , extensive forced evacuations were carried out, so that the number of Latvians living in Russia doubled to up to 500,000 people. In 1917 the Latvian riflemen were early supporters of the Bolsheviks . With the end of the world war and the Russian civil war , many of the refugees were able to return to the now independent Latvia. The Riga Peace Treaty explicitly provided for the right of former Latvian shooters and refugees to leave the country. In 1926, according to the census, around 150,000 Latvians lived in the Soviet Union. These cultivated a lively cultural life with Latvian cultural associations, newspapers and theaters.

Since the 1905 revolution there has been a strong Latvian faction in the Bolshevik Party. People of Latvian descent temporarily held the highest offices in the state apparatus. Of the 70 commissioners in the Cheka in 1918, 38 were of Latvian origin. However, with the increasing Russification of the state organs, members of non-Russian minorities were largely pushed out of leadership positions. Latvia was regarded by the party leadership around Josef Stalin as a so-called "enemy nation" and Latvians in general as counter-revolutionary and suspicious. The resistance of the rural colonists to forced collectivization at the end of the 1920s seemed to confirm this picture. These colonies were eliminated by 1933 through targeted deportations to the Gulag . Since 1933 the GPU secret police in Leningrad has been collecting "incriminating material" on the Latvian population. From this time onwards, the party and state apparatus were "purged" of non-Russians. The Communist Party of Latvia was dissolved in 1936, its employees persecuted as " nationalists " and " enemies of the people " and murdered. One aspect of the Great Terror was state-directed xenophobia . In July 1937 the Prometejs publishing house and cultural association was closed and its employees were arrested. Because one of the predetermined goals of the Latvian operation was the liquidation of all Latvian clubs. The red Latvian riflemen were from the history and textbooks away and dissolved their veterans associations.

The operation

On November 23, 1937, Nikolai Jeschow ordered the NKVD agencies to pool all information gathered about Latvians in cultural and political life, the military and other institutions in order to be able to arrest them “just as they did during the Polish operation”. On November 30th, Order No. 49990 was used to arrest ethnic Latvians on a massive scale throughout the Soviet Union. Trials were streamlined through pre-printed allegations and confession forms, and victims were sentenced to detention or execution. On the basis of confessions obtained under torture, the NKVD constructed the existence of a Latvian espionage circle, to which allegedly all Latvian officials from the Politburo to the school directors belonged. The last Latvian Chekists have now also been executed by their colleagues. Due to the large number of people arrested, the courts were unable to impose convictions quickly enough despite the so-called album proceedings. Therefore, the end date of the campaign was extended to August 1938. In October 1938 special troikas were set up to deal with the backlog of unprocessed cases. When Yezhov's successor, Lavrenti Beria , issued NKVD Order No. 00762 on November 26, 1938, the Latvian operation ended with the end of the Great Terror.

The liquidation of the Latvian party functionaries was to cause the Soviet authorities certain difficulties in building up a party and administrative apparatus during the occupation of Latvia in 1940.

Surgery victim

In particular, 22,369 convictions of Latvians are known, of which 16,573 or 74% were shot. Various estimates assume 73,000 Latvian fatalities. The exact number of victims is also not available because a great many other people were murdered under the pretext of being "Latvians". The statistics do not include women who were sent to the Gulag because of a marriage to enemies of the people and their children who were sent to orphanages.

The operation led to the abandonment of their own culture among those who remained, so that the descendants of the Latvian colonists hardly speak Latvian anymore. The victims were rehabilitated under Khrushchev . Relatives were only able to obtain information about the specific place and date of death after the end of communist rule after 1990. The perpetrators and executors of the action, often known by name, were never brought to justice.

Larger groups of victims were shot at the Butowo and Kommunarka training areas near Moscow, Levaschowo near Leningrad or Kurapaty near Minsk. The tortures and murders were carried out across the country.

Prominent victims from the field of culture include: Marija Leiko and Gustavs Klucis . From the party, armed forces and Cheka: Jukums Vācietis , Jēkabs Alksnis , Jānis Rudzutaks , Roberts Eihe , Jānis Bērziņš , Teodors Eihmans , Jēkabs Peterss , Mārtiņš Lācis , Kārlis Daniševskis and Jānis Krūmiņš .

See also

literature

  • Pārsla Eglīte u. a .: "Latviešu akcija" PSRS 1937-1938. Latvian Occupation Museum, 2007, ISBN 978-9984-9931-5-7 .
  • Björn M. Felder: Latvia in World War II. Between Soviet and German occupiers 1940–1946. Schöningh, 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76544-4 , pp. 63-75.
  • Aivars Beika: Latvieši Padomju Savienībā. Komunistiskā genocīda upuri 1929–1939. In: Latvijas Okupācijas muzeja gadagrāmata; 1: 1999. Riga 2000.
  • Anna Kaminsky: Places of remembrance of the mass terror of 1937/38: Russian Federation. Federal foundation for coming to terms with the SED dictatorship, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-022887-2 .

documentary

  • Dzintra Geka: Stacija Latvieši 1937. Studija SB 2011.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Latviešu akcija "PSRS 1937–1938. Latvian Occupation Museum, 2007, ISBN 978-9984-9931-5-7 , p. 17.
  2. ^ Björn M. Felder: Latvia in World War II. P. 64.
  3. ^ Björn M. Felder: Latvia in World War II. P. 65.
  4. ^ Björn M. Felder: Latvia in World War II. P. 55.
  5. ^ Björn M. Felder: Latvia in World War II. P. 65.
  6. ^ Björn M. Felder: Latvia in World War II. P. 71.
  7. ^ Björn M. Felder: Latvia in World War II. P. 72.
  8. ^ Björn M. Felder: Latvia in World War II. P. 65.
  9. ↑ Latviešu akcija "PSRS 1937–1938. Latvian Occupation Museum, 2007, ISBN 978-9984-9931-5-7 , p. 20.
  10. ↑ Latviešu akcija "PSRS 1937–1938. Latvian Occupation Museum, 2007, ISBN 978-9984-9931-5-7 , p. 21.
  11. ^ Björn M. Felder: Latvia in World War II. P. 72.
  12. ↑ see: Igors Vārpa: Latviešu karavīrs zem Krievijas impērijas, Padomju Krievijas and PSRS karogiem. (Nordik, Riga 2006), ISBN 9984-792-11-0 , p. 450.
  13. ↑ Latviešu akcija "PSRS 1937–1938. Latvian Occupation Museum, 2007, ISBN 978-9984-9931-5-7 , p. 20.
  14. ^ Björn M. Felder: Latvia in World War II. P. 68.